You know, watching Chio-chan I have feeling just like watching a brilliant kid playing around. It’s consistently funny from start to finish; it’s very, very relatable, but sometimes you can’t help but feel a bit nervous when the show resorts to fan-service tendency. To be fair, there’s nothing inherently wrong with having some fan-services in a show. Many shows depend entirely on the low-brow humors, but we all know Chio-chan can be just as hilarious without relying on those fanservices. Chio-chan this week has plenty of panty-shots, and toilet humor – or put it better, all the humors happening in the toilet, but I could argue that the show has some context behind it so somehow it gets away with it. We starts off with our Chio having the need to find a nearby toilet (oh so relatable), and things escalate from here as she goes to the men’s toilet and is unable to get out. It’s the basic formula to ensue hilarity.
First off, everything involving Chio’s decisions work well for me. The way she would do anything but walking out of the front door is just so consistent with her never-embarrass-herself policy. The overly complicated but somehow-it-works plan that runs like a domino effect is so absurdist in concept it’s actually funny to see if it works out. Her tactic involves distracting the cat with the toilet ball she uses, that in turns distracting the two school girl then as a consequences distracting the businessmen for looking at girls’ panties. There’s an awful lot of coincidences requirements here but I don’t mind one bit of that. Yep, I was talking about fanservice earlier and here we have juggling ass out from the toilet window, and goddamnit why the animation is so smooth and addictive? Heck, this might be one of the rare time that I can’t help but keep staring at that butt. I also love the exaggerated sound effect of the person who used the toilet next to her, and cute little George. Well, this segment is a winner for me.
The second segment, however, not that much. Mostly because of the new addition, Momo, who doesn’t really stand out except for playing straight against Chio and Manana’s antics. As she witnesses the duo keeps being awful to each other without remorse, she can’t turn her eyes away anymore and declares those two are bad influences to each other. While the setup is dime a dozen and in truth I think Chio and Manana’s dynamic doesn’t need this kind of reassurance, it produces what might be two of my favorite moments this week. The first of them is a total crash and embarrassing Mananacchio dance which basically how 5 year old kids would do when they imitate cats (cats appear to be the MVP here) and second, one of this sharpest line: “when people find out the relationship between teacher and student, all the blames will go to the teacher, so just try your best”.Goddamn Manana, listen to her advice and heads certainly will roll. Chio-chan and her way to school still have plenty fun to offer.
